Control Monuments

Control monuments are placed as part of triangulation surveys, measurement efforts that moved systematically across the City, Province and Country, establishing the angles and distances between various points. Such surveys lay the basis for map-making in Canada and across the world. These permanent control monuments create a fixed reference frame on which surveyors can base their measurements. This allows measurements from different surveyors, and in different periods of time, to fit together.

What is the Municipal Process?

The City field checks monuments annually (reports results of field checks to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry), budgets to replace destroyed monuments, budgets to add new monuments that will tighten triangulation, maintains a GIS dataset of all locations and maintains standard mapping products.

The City will not provide measurements on any monuments, all enquires will be directed to the Ontario geodetic control database (COSINE website).